The impact of violence against women on reproductive health

Carollee started dating a 32-year-old man when she was 19. Things went well at first and they began to sleep together. She was on birth control pills, however, she noticed that whole rows of pills would disappear. When Carollee called her boyfriend on the disappearing birth control, he responded that he “knew” she wanted to have his child. Carollee also noticed that he was sabotaging the condoms, but didn’t bring it up. Shortly after they got together, Carollee became pregnant and her boyfriend began to monitor and control her more carefully.

Stories like these are not uncommon. I knew an immigrant woman who, every time she would enroll in English classes, would “all of a sudden” become pregnant. It’s not far fetched to think that her partner used pregnancy as a form of control. Previously, as a counselor for immigrant women survivors of violence, I bared witness to a lot of pain. And it was often that these women would speak about birth control sabotage, sexual coercion and rape, and forced abortions.

As we’re nearing the end of October, Domestic Violence Awareness month, I want to bring your attention to the connection between reproductive health and violence against women. Violence limits women’s ability to manage their reproductive health and is linked to reproductive health issues like STD and HIV transmission and miscarriages. Considering that at least one in every three women around the world has been beaten, sexually coerced or otherwise abused during her lifetime,[1] we are just beginning to scratch the surface of the reproductive health issues of women facing violence.

The Family Violence Prevention Fund recently launched an initiative, kNOwMORE, looking at the intersection between reproductive health and violence against women. As part of the initiative, the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the Guttmacher Institute hosted a roundtable discussion in September, “The Intersection of Domestic Violence and Sexual and Reproductive Health,” and you can listen to segments of that discussion here.

And remember, by the time you finished reading this post; at least 4 women will have been abused by a partner across the United States.